


Once in a Fleeting Dream

by afflatussolace



Series: where you go fate will surely follow [12]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Amaurot (Final Fantasy XIV), Amaurotine Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Amaurotine alphinaud doesn't know he's already living his dream, Amaurotines (Final Fantasy XIV), Denial of Feelings, F/M, Female Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Spoilers, Flirting, Patch 5.0: Shadowbringers Spoilers, Warrior of Light Is A Shard of Azem (Final Fantasy XIV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:22:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27185140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afflatussolace/pseuds/afflatussolace
Summary: He’s attained all that he had hoped for, without even realizing he was living in his dream.Involves an amaurotine WOL named chloris who is the fourteenth member of the convocation and amaurotine alphinaud, apollo, her old classmate who appealed for the same position as her, but got rejected.Reuploaded from myblog. For the ffxivwrite2020 event held on tumblr.
Relationships: Alphinaud Leveilleur/Original Character(s), Alphinaud Leveilleur/Warrior of Light, Amaurotine Characters/Azem (Final Fantasy XIV)
Series: where you go fate will surely follow [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1971088
Kudos: 4





	Once in a Fleeting Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt #12- Tooth and Nail  
>  _"with all of one's strength and effort."_

  
  


“Why me?” His question echoes, like a drop of water upon a still lake, rippling through the still air and coursing into the heart of the shining sun that sat patiently next to him.. and as ever, her effervescent smile scalds his ego.

“Why not you? You are the smartest person I know. I thought it appropriate for you to help me in an area you’ve always excelled at.” She answers with a nonchalance that grates him, and yet pleases him all the same. It was always this duality - this hatred that danced in the midst of a fleeting fancy that aggravated him the most about her. 

But his next question is fueled by anger born from the latter of his emotions, his eyes burning green before he could hold himself back. 

“Are you not best friends with Emet-Selch? Surely he’d be a better candidate on the matter of tracking down this rogue creature for you. Perhaps even better at disposing of it than you.”

His attempt to prod at her self-esteem utterly flops with the melodic giggle that sung out of her lips, ringing like a bell chime high into the air and carrying his pride along with it.

“I’d sooner sell that man for a single grape.”

For the first time on that day, Apollo smiles.. daring a chuckle, even. The joy he felt was a pain, and the laughter this woman pried out of him tasted bitter on his tongue. But he will be the first to admit amidst all his lies and falsities that he was pleasantly delighted with her answer. 

“Best friends in the eyes of the committee, perhaps.” Azem finally answers with some amount of seriousness, one that takes even him aback. It wasn’t often he’d get to see her frown from her own thoughts. “Emet-Selch and I.. don’t exactly get along outside of the work we are obligated to do.”

“Truly? You wouldn’t be able to tell with how well the both of you work.”

It made sense however, now that Apollo has given more thought about it. Those two were rarely ever seen together outside of a professional setting. Granted, it wasn’t very often. Azem’s ever soul piercing gaze towards him, and her invigorating smile that burned with the radiance of a thousand suns would have a mere bystander as himself believe that she was utterly smitten by her older, darker, more cynical partner.

But that was what she was always like to anyone and everyone, a woman who commanded the awe of anyone who looked her way, who dazzled with her gait and the myriad of smiles that bloomed like flowers in her path. She captured the world she saw on her many travels like a mirror that sparkled in her eyes, and the many stories she’d happily recite to others would leave people even more starstruck. 

The dazzling shepherd of the stars and the sun, a light that refuses to die out.. certainly wouldn’t mix with the dark, melancholic cynic that was the architect, whose face always feels like it was being haunted by a rain cloud.

And yet.. was he truly better company? At least Emet-Selch had his position and power going for him.

“Well, differences in our philosophical beliefs and truly, horrifyingly incompatible work ethics aside, he and i are better as colleagues.. Colleagues who have spent enough time together that we’ve become something of a reluctant family, but colleagues nonetheless.” Azem’s smile returns, and Apollo has to resist his inner urge to turn his gaze away. “I’d much rather spend time with someone I actually get along with.”

His eyebrow raises, as does the bile in his stomach. 

“We get along?”

“Wouldn’t you say so?” He senses a light brush on his arm, and glances down to find the tip of her finger, tracing the threads of his coat and trailing down, dangerously close to his hand, which clenches in anticipation. 

But their hands never meet, and he swallows down his disappointment with a flustered gulp.

“Mmhm. Maybe.”

Azem flashes yet another disarming smile, but she finds herself turning away to hide the burning of her cheeks beneath the shadows of her bangs, a finger rising up to twirl at the long strands of her luster woven hair. And Apollo could not help but to smirk. It’s not often one gets to fluster Azem in such a manner.

He’d fought tooth and nail for a position in the convocation, only for his dreams to be utterly and completely dashed - the title of azem stolen away by a woman he’d always and forever envy for her many talents. She was superior in creation magic, despite being objectively weaker in the matter of book studies.. and he was always perplexed by her preference when it came to her more.. hands on approach to problem solving.

But it’s earned her her title and position, leaving him to rot in the dust. 

He still does not understand why she decided he’d be best to drag along on one of her assignments. But he’s utterly ashamed of admitting to the excitement and euphoria he feels upon what she’d just told him - that she chose him, above all others. Above Emet-Selch, above Elidibus, and thank all the stars in the heavens, above even Lahabrea. She chose him, simply because she liked spending time with him.

The woman was as peculiar as she was dazzling, an enigma he’d chosen foolishly against his will to be wrapped in the company of. 

Apollo poured all of his time and effort in the world for a dream he never knew he’d already attained, and he’d perhaps never realize this for all the remainder of this eternity. 

He stands to his feet, pulling up his hood and fixing his navy blue mask upon his face as he looks down at her with a forced furrow of his brow. His lips part, an attempt to speak before thinking, but he bites back the instinct to call her by her title.

Was it fueled by jealousy? His yet unresolved anger? Or perhaps he’d simply despised the way the title rolled off his tongue.

Regardless, he was a man stubborn in his ways, with an ego larger than the world itself. He hated calling her by her name.. but he loathed calling her ‘Azem’ even more.

“Let’s go, Chloris.”

It takes a moment for it to click, for the single moment of clarity to strike her. It’s been so long since she’d heard that name, even longer still to hear it from him. And her shock shows in the rising of heat upon her cheeks, the dust of pink of which quickly spreads to her button nose and to the tips of her ears. And as if she were a flower in full bloom, or a luminous supernova, her lips threaten to split her face in two as she beams up at him, and her radiance completely obliterates his own sense of self for a moment. 

“O-O-Okay!”


End file.
